LONDON (Alliance News) -Epistem Holdings PLC Monday said talks to expand a supply and distribution agreement with US medical technology company Becton Dickinson had failed, and the whole agreement originally entered into in August 2012 has now been terminated.
In a trading update, the biotechnology and personalised medicine company said that it had hoped that an agreement would have provided additional revenue of up to GBP1.2 million for the year ended June 30.
It said that as a result of the failed talks, its previous guidance for its full year results remain unchanged, and it expects to report slightly lower revenues of GBP5.4 million for the year ended June 30, compared with GBP5.6 million a year earlier. It also said that it will report a net loss of GBP1.2 million, compared with a net loss of GBP200,000 million a year earlier.
It said the failure of the deal would allow it to focus on getting regulatory approval for its tuberculosis test in India.
It said it has made significant progress over the past few months on manufacturing, pre-market support for independent tuberculosis clinical studies, and preparations for the launch of the TB test.
EpiStem also said that its key focus within the personalised medicine division has been on the development of Genedrive, a molecular diagnostic testing system, which its claims can provide a faster, more accurate test result. It said the development of its expanding menu of infectious disease and pharmacogenomic product applications for Genedrive is progressing well.
It said that its Preclinical Research Services and Novel Therapies are broadly in line with the prior year.
"Whilst we are disappointed that the BD partnership agreement was not successfully concluded, development of our finished product offering is progressing, with our sights firmly fixed on accelerating our Indian regulatory approval and delivering our first competitive TB sales to market," said Chief Executive Officer Matthew Walls in a statement.
The company said that it held net cash of GBP6.1 million as of September 6, although this would be reduced to GBP5.5 million after the repayment of USD1 million to Becton Dickinson under the terms of its original agreement.
EpiStem Holdings is expected to announce its preliminary results on October 22.
Its share were amongst the biggest decliners Monday, down 17.3% or 95.00 pence at 455.00 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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